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Hackers Target Pakistani Man's Website After bin Laden Raid Tweets


Twitter page of Sohaib Athar. In the early hours of Monday, Athar reported on his Twitter account that a loud bang had rattled his windows in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad.
Twitter page of Sohaib Athar. In the early hours of Monday, Athar reported on his Twitter account that a loud bang had rattled his windows in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad.

Unknown online hackers have compromised the website of a man in Pakistan who has become an Internet sensation after unknowingly live-blogging the U.S. operation that killed Osama bin Laden.

The online security lab Websense said Tuesday that someone had installed a code on Sohaib Athar's blog that attempts to install malware on a visitor's computer. On May 1, Athar acknowledged that his blog server was infected.

In the past two days, Athar has drawn tens of thousands of new followers to his Twitter account, which has a link to his blog.

The Pakistani computer programmer, who describes himself as "the guy who unknowingly liveblogged the Osama raid," first posted early Monday a message saying there was a helicopter hovering over the town of Abbottabad, and tweeted for it to "go away." He then posted a tweet about a window-shaking bang and relayed some reports of possible explanations for the situation.

It was later revealed that a helicopter involved with the U.S. operation had crashed.

One of Athar's twitter followers connected Athar's posts to the speech given by U.S. President Barack Obama saying American special forces had killed bin Laden.

After news of his story spread, Athar's posts have included mentions of his interviews with various media outlets and apologies for not being able to respond to every journalist's request.

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